


Moments Like This

by bravest_person_in_Wonderland



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, I Don't Even Know, I Will Go Down With This Ship, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, It just happened, It's something, Tenderness, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, and sent it to my beta at 2am, for once I didn't write angst, here ya go, it's just fluff, post audio 063: Caerdroia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:41:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24580000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bravest_person_in_Wonderland/pseuds/bravest_person_in_Wonderland
Summary: "Somewhere in the back of her mind, Charley considered the fact that it had only been earlier today that she had told C’rizz that she and the Doctor were only friends, and she wondered how true that really was."
Relationships: Eighth Doctor/Charley Pollard
Comments: 8
Kudos: 11





	Moments Like This

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from "Moments Like This" by the Afters.
> 
> Betaed by [LadyofLothal](/users/LadyofLothal/)

This may have been a universe without time, but Charley was sure that it’d been months since she’d had a real bath. Maybe it was like how food tastes better when you’re hungry, because that had to have been the absolute best bath she had ever taken. She wandered the halls of the TARDIS for a few minutes and found neither the Doctor nor C’rizz, so turned and walked back to the kitchen to make a cup of tea.

She entered the console room with two cups of tea and her hair still damp. The Doctor stood at the console, piddling and fondling the controls and humming a sprightly tune. He looked up as she approached and smiled, a real, bright smile that reached his eyes for the first time in who knew how long. It was- stunning. Charley handed him one of the teacups.

“Where did C’rizz get off to?” the Doctor asked.

Charley shrugged. “I haven’t a clue. My guess is he’s either holed up in whichever bedroom he chose, or he’s exploring. Hopefully he won’t get lost,” she added, knowing from experience how confusing the corridors could be.

“Oh, you mean like you did?” the Doctor teased.

Charley laughed and bumped him with her shoulder. “That was entirely the TARDIS’s fault, and you know it,” she replied.

The Doctor smiled again, and Charley couldn’t help but stare as she sipped her tea. The light in his eyes was captivating. She felt an uncontrollable grin spreading across her face in the moment of quiet. When the Doctor noticed, he just raised an eyebrow in question.

“It’s been so long since I’ve seen you happy like this,” Charley said. It had also been so long since she herself had felt like this. “Really, truly _happy_.” The girlish fluttering in her chest when he stood near her, the feeling that had faded to the background as they struggled to survive in this new universe, now rushed back in full force. The swirling emotion came to its climax as she tentatively lifted a hand to the Doctor’s cheek, then faded back to a comfortable lightness when he closed his eyes and tilted his head into the touch.

After a moment he opened his eyes. “And you, Charley?” he asked, his voice soft. “Are you happy?”

“Well,” Charley said, stroking her thumb under his eye before finally pulling her hand back, “I have you, and C’rizz, and now I have a place I can call home. So yes, I’m happy.”

They stood in silence for a moment before the Doctor spoke again:

“Thank you.”

Charley blinked. “Whatever for?”

The Doctor sighed. “Being you.” He set his teacup down on the console and took both her hands. “My brave, strong Charley. My anchor.” As he spoke, one of his hands moved from holding hers up to her shoulder, then into her hair as he bent his head and rested his forehead against hers.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Charley considered the fact that it had only been earlier today that she had told C’rizz that she and the Doctor were only friends, and she wondered how true that really was. Lord, she desperately wanted to kiss him. She didn’t though, because it wouldn’t be proper, not here, not now, and who knew what he would even think of it.

“I still love you,” the Doctor murmured, cutting off her dangerous train of thought.

“I know that,” Charley answered, “I never doubted it.” She pulled a little away to look at him.

“No, I mean…” he hesitated. “That’s what I was going to say earlier, in the clock tower, after you fell.”

“Oh.” She whispered. She had wondered if that hadn’t been the case. “I thought so,” she said, her mouth forming into a slight smirk. The Eeyore version of him really had been insufferable.

“Oh, did you now?” the Doctor chuckled.

“I know you well enough.”

“Better than anyone.” His voice had gone all soft again and there was such a fond, sweet look on his face that it really did take all of Charley’s willpower not to stand on tiptoes and press her lips to his.

She swallowed that urge and held his gaze. Gosh, it was perilous to notice how very, very blue his eyes were. “I love you, too,” she finally managed to get past the critical mass of emotion contained in her chest.

The Doctor stared into her eyes – and what seemed like her soul; hopefully he couldn’t see all the things she was feeling – for a few seconds longer. Then he pushed some of her almost-dry hair out of the way and pressed a lingering kiss to her forehead. When he stepped back, he gave her hand one last squeeze. “You should get some sleep.”

“And you?”

“You know me. I might sleep, I might not,” the Doctor replied, his eyes glinting. Good grief, she needed to stop noticing his eyes, how old was she anyway? She was acting like a lovesick schoolgirl. 

“But you, Miss Pollard, are human, and you _need_ rest.” He gave one more gentle grin as she sighed and pretended to pout. “Goodnight, Charley.” He didn’t say _I love you_ again, and she didn’t expect him to. But it was implied.

“Goodnight, Doctor.”

**Author's Note:**

> No one will ever convince me that grumpy!Eight was not about to say "I still love you" when he cut off (and Charley knew it too, *cue tension-filled silence*). Actually it's an interesting parallel to the end of Zagreus, when Charley breaks off right before saying (presumably) "you're not the man I fell in love with". 
> 
> Also, I have an [Eight/Charley playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/07liCEUNgbh6tJHXwAbewk?si=FjJJsODnRBigvM2vQTUWHQ) on Spotify if you'd like to check it out!


End file.
